Aces Wild
by Ascalz
Summary: Taking place in the middle of the Bebop series, this chronicles the adventure of the Bebop crew against a shadowy exmilitary group known as The Crazy Aces my first attempt at fan fiction, hope you enjoy it.
1. Chapter 1 The First Move

This is my first attempt at fan fiction. You'll have to understand that I'm still getting a "feel" for writing such things and as such, I hope you take that into account when reading/reviewing this. A quick note or two before I shut the hell up. This Bebop story takes place (obviously) before the events of the last episode of Cowboy Bebop. I wouldn't be able to chronologically place it between the episodes, but it would be after Ed was added to the Bebop crew. This story operates on the fact that in the show, it is never mentioned how long Spike, Faye, Jet, Ed and Ein are all together before the last few episodes it could have been a month, it could have been a few years. Furthermore, I take liberties with the settings, just as the show iteslf does, thus, little minor technical details I couldn't properly work out, I simply left "out in the open" so to speak without ever really explaining them, just as the show does but despite all thatI hope you enjoy the ride.

Cheers,

Ascalz

**Mars**

**The Tharsis Plateau, near the base of Olympus Mons**

Lieutenant Colonel Deric Ashtin never tired of the sight.

Olympus Mons was the largest mountain in the Solar System. It rose 68,000 feet into the sky, in contrast, Earth's tallest mountain, Mount Everest, only rose a mere 29,035 feet high. Olympus Mons was surrounded by a large cliff that itself was about 20,000 feet. If one could see past the cliff, you could see Olympus Mons begin its slow ascent towards the very heavens. Back when Mars had first been colonized, many had climbed the mountain, in specially made suits of course. It literally took weeks to trek up and down the massive mountain which took up enough space to fill what had once been the state of Michigan.

Deric himself had climbed the mountain with his men; in fact he made it a requirement to be a part of his unit.

However, the sight of Olympus Mons wasn't the purpose for Deric's presence out here. In fact he had business to attend to.

Currently he was looking through a powerful set of binoculars towards a small military installation. So small it would have been almost impossible to locate if one hadn't been looking for it. However, due to his…former position, Deric knew its precise location and what it contained. There would have been many who would have been outraged if they knew the base existed, let alone what it housed.

The Martian Government had many dirty secrets; this one in particular was one that they really wanted to keep under wraps.

The soft crunch of dirt next to him made him glance towards his right. Captain Alaska Foster stepped up beside him. She was a few inches shorter than he. For the longest time she had kept her brown hair short, but in recent times she'd let it grown out longer in order to help blend in better. She had bright green eyes that many men would find attractive, however her good looks helped conceal the fact that she was one of the deadliest human beings in the solar system. She wore a black outfit that was designed to absorb rounds from most weapons as well as help conceal her. Deric himself wore the same type of outfit. Attached to her outfit were different weapons and gadgets. Deric himself wore no such devices, he needed none. The only weapon he had on his person was a long knife attached to his belt.

She glanced at him and nodded her head in greeting, "Good morning sir," she said.

"Good morning Captain, I trust everything is going according to schedule?" said Deric as he looked again at the base.

"Yes sir, we will be ready to move in five minutes."

"Excellent."

The operation had been in planning for a long time, there would be no failures or mix-ups, Deric himself would see to it. However, he had no reason to doubt Captain Foster's abilities; she was the best at what she did.

Two trucks came up to where the two of them were standing; they slowed to a halt and out jumped at least two dozen armed men and women. They wore the same outfits that Deric and Alaska wore, they were all armed.

Deric nodded his approval at Alaska, "Impeccable timing, as always."

She nodded, the corners of her mouth turning upwards slightly, the closest she ever came to genuinely smiling was when he gave her his approval.

"Let us begin," he said.

Alaska nodded and made a motion with her hand, the men all prepared their weapons and equipment. They turned on their night vision equipment and took up their positions, they were awaiting Deric's signal.

Deric began to sprint towards the base. Already in good shape, the Mars gravity out here made his speed almost inhuman. Around the perimeter of the base was a minefield of electronic mines. The mines could only be activated and deactivated from inside the base, as well as from the central headquarters of the Martian military. They were near impossible to hack. Deric knew precisely where the mines lay at; he had memorized the number of personnel at the base and when they were next expected to report in which was in approximately one hour.

Plenty of time.

As he neared the edge of the minefield, Deric mentally thought up a codeword that only he knew a single word that activated the system that made him more than just an ordinary man. He felt power flow into his muscles and nervous system. His reflexes, strength and all other abilities were immediately enhanced. In mid stride, he tensed his leg muscles and pushed off the Martian surface.

He flew at least thirty feet into the air, easy going over the tall barbed wire fence that surrounded the entire base.

The guards, knowing full well that no one knew of this base and that no person could slip across the minefield were not paying full attention and did not notice Deric as he landed inside the base; a quick puff of Martian dirt was the only sign of his landing.

Deactivating his abilities by thinking of his codeword again, Deric moved quietly through the base, heading for a single one story building.

Slipping quietly into the building, Deric moved along the hallways slowly, looking for any personnel. He moved by the control room for the mines, noting that there was only one person in there at the moment. Deric knew that there should be two men inside the control room, meaning that one was roaming the building; he needed to be dealt with first.

He quickly found what a small kitchen near the control room, a man in uniform was in the process of making some coffee, and he didn't notice as Deric entered the room and quickly moved behind him. He jumped up grasping a hold of the man's mouth with one hand and wrapped his arm around part of the man's head with his free arm, twisting quickly; he broke the man's neck with an audible snap. Laying the lifeless body onto the tiled floor, Deric made his way back to the control room. Entering the room, he approached the man who sat in front of the control panel for the system of the base making no effort to conceal his footsteps.

"Is that you Everett? I hope this batch of coffee is better then the last pot of crap you served," said the soldier turning in his chair as he did so.

He barely had enough time to widen his eyes before Deric sliced a quick line across his throat with the knife on his side. There was a spray of crimson, the soldier, a surprised look on his face, clutched his throat before falling face first out of the chair onto the floor.

Deric wiped the blade off on the soldier's uniform moved, moved to the control panel, sheathing the knife as he did so. There were several screens showing various parts of the base, near the gate of the base there were two guard towers set up two bored looking guards were staring out onto the featureless Martian landscape. Deric began typing furiously at the keyboard in front of the main monitor at the control desk; the machine asked for three separate passwords to deactivate the minefield, Deric entered all three in without hesitation.

The screen showed a view of the minefield surrounding the base, each mine represented by a red dot, all of the dots suddenly vanished.

Activating a device built into his throat Deric said simply, "Proceed."

On the monitor both guards' heads simultaneously exploded, both having been hit from precise hits from long range rifles. Activating another control, the gates to the base slid open, and within moments, Deric's men entered the compound. There were at least two more men walking around the base that were dealt with as quickly and efficiently as their counterparts in the guard towers.

Deric left the control building as a squad of personnel broke off from the main element; they carried with them several large boxes that they hefted without complaint. They approached a large one story building which had been identified as the barracks of the base. Placing several of these boxes around the perimeter of the building they withdrew quickly.

A sudden roar and a flash revealed the contents of the boxes which had been filled with several large blocks of C4. The explosives detonated, smashing the barracks into a million pieces no bigger than a toothpick, killing the rest of the personnel on the base still living.

As soon as the explosion had died down the two trucks that had carried his force here roared into the base.

Deric glanced at a watch on his left wrist and nodded in satisfaction, they were ahead of schedule.

The force approached a large bunker that was built into the cliff that surrounded Mount Olympus, two control panels were on either side of the doors. Two men of Deric's force approached the controls, nodding to each other; they placed on a glove on each of their right hands. Although it could not be seen the gloves had the ability to mimic the hand print of any person that could access the bunker. In this case it was two colonels who had graciously supplied the hand prints at the cost of their lives.

The doors to the bunker slid open with a loud squealing sound; clearly they had not been opened in a long time.

Entering the bunker first, Deric looked and saw what he was looking for. He could hardly have missed them; they were the only things in the bunker. Sitting directly in front of him were five large crates marked with a radioactive symbols on them.

For the first time in what seemed like years, Deric Ashtin smiled.


	2. Chapter 2 Cleanup, Aisle 10

**Three days later**

**Io**

Spike's eyes widened as the missile hurled towards him. He pushed the yoke of the Swordfishdown and to the left; the ship obeyed instantly, the missile, unable to follow the movement hurled by, a little too close for comfort.

The ship that had fired the missile began to open up with the rear mounted gun turret that had been placed on it.

Tracers arced up towards him, but Spike made the Swordfishnimbly twist and turn out of the path of the rounds.

The ship which was so intent on killing him was piloted by two men that Spike wanted to catch very badly. The Fren Brothers were wanted on Io, Ganymede, and several asteroid belt colonies. They had killed a few cops and bystanders in a string of robberies that had taken them across the Solar System. They had a nice bounty on their head, four million woolongs, if they could be brought in, alive, together, one or the other was only worth a million.

So needless to say, it was a sound investment to make sure he didn't blow them and their ship out of the sky.

It'd taken him awhile to track these two bastards down, had to chase them across almost the whole damned solar system.

But it would be worth it.

Spike used his targeting computer to try and aim for the engines of the ship the Fren brothers were in, they might come down a little hard, but at worst they would probably have a concussion. The bounty was paid for living people, even if they needed some medical attention.

Spike focused on trying to get a good lock on their engines, not easy considering they were doing their best to kill him. Finally, the computer chimed at him, he had the perfect spot to shoot now. His finger moved to the trigger…

"Hey, I'll help out!" chimed a voice over his comm system.

Oh no.

The voice was deep and womanly, the kind of voice that you could spend hours listening to, the type of voice that could ONLY belong to a gorgeous woman. No doubt that voice had or would seduce a great many men with its silky tone.

Spike however, knew better.

"Faye! Back off, this is my bounty!" he snarled back at her.

Damnit, he lost the lock on the engines, he was already getting pissed off.

A noise over his shoulder caused him to look back. Faye's zip craft; the Red Tail was behind and above him slightly. He saw that she had armed her missile launcher.

"Faye, don't!" spike barely got to choke the words out before she fired.

The missiles streaked by him, slamming into the Fren Brothers' ship. The missiles exploded with a terrific double explosion. The ship it seemed couldn't decided whether to crash or break apart, so in order to save time, it did both.

It smashed into the desert surface of Io with a tremendous crash sending pieces of debris everywhere, sand was thrown up in all directions with tremendous force. Spike sighed as he watched the display. Well, he still had to be SURE.

Setting the Swordfish down near the wreckage, he climbed out and walked over to where what appeared to be the main hull of the ship, he moved to a large hole that had been blown in the side of the ship, pulling himself slightly inside the ship to have a better look at the interior.

Yeah, there was no collecting this bounty.

"Well? You find them?" asked Jet over the comm device Spike had on him.

"What's left of them," said Spike into the device as he shook what was left of a human being off of his hand, "Yuck."

"Great work Faye, no brothers, no bounty," crackled Jet over the comm.

"Hey I'm sorry! How was I supposed to know they would have such a flimsy ship!" retorted Faye.

"I'm coming back, send a message to the cops about this," said Spike, walking back to the Swordfish

"What should I tell them?" said Jet.

"Bring a sponge."

**The Bebop**

**Orbit of Io**

"Damnit Faye! Why in the hell did you get involved in our bounty!" yelled Jet.

"Because you two didn't cut me in on it! I couldn't very well stand by and let you guys hog the entire bounty now could I?"

Spike had a cigarette clutched between his lips, dangling precariously. Occasionally he would take a puff on it, but for the most part just let it burn out while watching the smoke lazily drift upwards. He sat on the sofa in the Bebop's his arms out to either side of him on the back of the well worn sofa. Every so often he would glance at Jet and Faye, engaged in their argument, a few times he'd almost drifted asleep, but the cigarette ashes that drifted down and burnt him woke him up. He'd yelled at Faye when they first go back, but now, what was the point? Yelling wouldn't make him feel better nor would it bring the bounty back.

"-isn't that right Spike?" said Jet suddenly turning towards Spike who finally came back into the real world.

"Wha-?" asked Spike blankly.

Jet gritted his teeth, "I was saying that Faye has been nothing but a drain on us ever since she got here."

"Hey! It's not like you two have even caught a real bounty recently!" retorted Faye.

"She's got us there," said Spike.

Jet sat back on one of the other sofas, crossed his arms and closed his eyes, "I give up, if neither of you two care about how many woolongs we lost out on this job, why the hell should I?"

"Relax Jet, something else will come along. Something always does," Faye helpfully put in.

"Yeah, and we always happen to lose out on that something," Jet rumbled back, his arms still crossed.

Spike's cigarette finally reach its end, putting it out in a nearby ashtray on the table in front of him Spike turned to Ed who was sitting nearby.

"Ed is there anything being mentioned on the net?" asked Spike.

"Nope!" Ed cheerfully responded.

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothiiiiiiing!" Ed sang back.

Spike sighed, "Guess our something is going to take its time finding us."

"There's a lot of talk going on over military channels though," Ed suddenly said.

This roused Jet out of his brooding; uncrossing his arms he leaned forward towards Ed who was sitting on the floor on her computer a few feet directly in front of him, Ein sleeping peacefully next to her. "What kind of talk?"

"Hard to make out. They are talking to each other…about cards?" Ed glanced quizzically at the group of bounty hunters before turning her attention back to the computer that was in front of her.

"Cards? That's really wie- hey, aren't military channels restricted?" said Faye.

"Not when you know the right things to say and Ed does!" Ed chirped back.

All three bounty hunters groaned at the same time, "I don't want to know Ed," was uttered simultaneously by all three.

"Besides why should we care about what the military does? Its not like they would ever post a bounty, they've got their own people to deal with that sort of thing," Jet said.

"Ed, can you keep an eye on it for us? Let us know if anything else is mentioned? Something like this might be worth keeping tabs on," Spike said while standing up.

"Where are you going?" Jet said as Spike made his way out of the room.

"To the shower, I think I still have some of the Fren brothers on me."


	3. Chapter 3 Enter the General

**Martian Army Headquarters **

**Mars**

General John Ragner slammed his hand down on his desk, making several objects on it jump and sending several papers scattering and said, "Damnit! We have the entire resources of the military intelligence community at out disposal and we can't hunt down the bastard!"

A nervous young man with the rank of Captain on his uniform jumped up at the violence that Ragner displayed. He no doubt didn't want to be in the room, Ragner didn't give a damn. This was serious business, if word of what had happened got out…hell if word got out of what had been TAKEN, the public would call for the heads of those responsible. One of the men chiefly responsible was of course, John Ragner.

"Sir, Colonel Ashtin is well aware of our counter-terrorist measures, as well as virtually all of our resources and their placement," said the Captain, whose last name was Boyd, he paused, pushed up the rather large framed glasses that were perched precariously on the edge of his long hooked nose and continued, "after all, he helped design and emplace most of them."

"I know that!" snapped Ragner back at his subordinate, "God, if only the operation hadn't been mishandled, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"That is true sir, but regardless, we must deal with this problem," said Captain Boyd soothingly.

"What other options do we have?" Ragner inquired, settling back into his chair and hunching over his desk.

"We could mobilize the entire military, put out orders to-"

"Out of the question, you know full well why we can't use the military as a whole to deal with Colonel Ashtin and his band," Ragner said, cutting Boyd off.

"Perhaps there are other options we haven't thought of using yet?"

"What options are there?" Ragner's eyebrow rose inquisitively. In many ways he didn't care for Captain Boyd. The man clearly was out to rise in the ranks as quickly as he could he wasn't a warrior, had never been in a firefight of any kind.

"Treat them exactly as they are, as a terrorist group. Say that Ashtin and his group went rogue from the rest of the military and that they are a threat to order in the System."

"You don't honestly think that any of the bounty hunters scattered across the Solar System could do a damned thing to even slow down, let alone stop Colonel Ashtin and his men?"

"No sir, I don't. However, if we have hundreds if not thousands of bounty hunters trying to track Ashtin down, we could discover where he and his men are hiding, possibly what their next move is."

Ragner sat back in his chair with a heavy sigh, "Damnit all to hell, I didn't want this to get public, but I'm afraid that as much as I hate to admit it, your idea is the best one I've heard yet Captain Boyd, make the necessary arrangements with the government put out a sizeable bounty on Ashtin's head along with his men."

"Yes sir, right away," Captain Boyd turned and exited General Ragner's office.

To the empty room Ragner muttered, "Deric you bastard, I'll see to it you stay dead this time."


	4. Chapter 4 Destination, Pluto

**The Bebop**

**Orbit of Io**

"I found something!" Ed squealed in delight.

"Found what?" asked Spike groggily from the couch nearby, he'd been taking a nap.

"About the military thing!" replied Ed.

"What's this all about?" asked Jet walking into the room, Faye right behind him, "I could hear Ed yelling from the other room."

Spike sat up, "Apparently Ed found something about that weird military chatter earlier."

"Well what is it Ed?"

"Here let me show you!" the screen in front of Ed suddenly sprang to life with the image of a news reporter behind a desk, the reporter had a grainy image of a man on the screen next to him and was in the middle of speaking, "Recapping our top story, the Martian Military with full support from the government a few minutes ago, issued a bounty against a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Martian Military, the former Lieutenant Colonel, named Deric Ashtin, along with several personnel from his unit, reportedly deserted from his unit earlier this week without any sort of warning or prior notice. The military stresses that the reason it wants Ashtin brought back unharmed because of the valuable military data that he possesses. General Ragner of the Martian Military High Command said in a statement quote 'Colonel Ashtin's service has been exemplary and his high access in the military reflects this, the idea that he could attempt to sell such secrets to gangs or private individuals is very real and thus, he must be captured alive' end quote. The military has said it will pay a bounty of one hundred and fifty million woolongs to anyone who finds and captures Ashtin. It is also said that Ashtin will most likely be accompanied by the personnel that deserted with him and thus, should be considered armed and extremely dangerous-"

"Turn it off Ed," said Jet.

The news report flicked off-screen.

"So what do you think?" asked Spike, looking at Jet.

Jet shrugged, "Something doesn't feel right about it."

"What do you mean? This is one-hundred and fifty million woolongs we're talking about here! I don't see what feels wrong about it!" Faye cried out.

"Yeah, but a Lieutenant Colonel just deciding to pack it up and leave along with some of his command, that is hardly a normal occurrence," responded Jet.

"I don't like it either, but Faye does have a point, this is one hundred and fifty million we're talking about."

"I know, hey Ed, can you find anything on this Ashtin guy?"

"Already have!" Ed cheerfully responded.

Jet bent down to peer at the information that was scrolling across the screen, the same grainy image of a man was next to the information, and began to read off some of the info.

"Lieutenant Colonel Deric Asthin, forty-three years old, has been in military service for twenty years now. Top graduate at the Hellas Military Academy on Mars, has received virtually every single peace and wartime decoration available, most of his wartime decorations came from his involvement in the Titan Conflict a few years ago. During the conflict he commanded 3rd Battalion of the Martian Special Forces Unit which was involved in heavy fighting at several different times. The unit however received about eighty percent casualties near the end of the conflict and was recalled shortly thereafter. Ashtin himself virtually vanished out of existence, its not mentioned what happened of him until this little incident."

"Is there a better picture of him then what is on that file in there?And is there anybody in his former unit that we can get a hold of to find out where he is?" Spike asked.

"For the photo question, no, Ashtin was considered so valuable, no photographic evidence of his face exists on file to prevent anyone from IDing him while he was in the Special Forces and as to the second question, according to this, every single person that served with Ashtin in the Titan Conflict disappeared along with him, oh and you'll love this,"

"What's that?"

"Apparently 3rd Battalion had a nickname during its existence."

"And what was that?"

"The Crazy Aces."

"Catchy. That would explain the chatter we heard earlier about cards wouldn't it?"

"It would, but that doesn't explain why Ashtin would suddenly pick up and leave the military that he served faithfully for twenty years and take with him a bunch of the most highly trained and decorated men and women in the military."

"Yeah, something isn't right about this, but it is a lot of woolongs just to look into it. We just need a place to start that's all," Spike said, stretching his arms out over him.

"What about people that deserted the unit _before_ Deric Ashtin vanished?" Faye suddenly asked.

"Hmm…" Jet scratched his bearded chin "Worth a try, though I don't think anything will come up, Ed can you find anything about anyone in the Crazy Aces that deserted before a few days ago?"

"Yeah! But the file is pretty confidential a lot of security programs on it!" Ed responded while doing a handstand, her legs bent forward at an awkward angle that Jet wouldn't have believed possible.

"Can you open it?" Jet asked.

"Already trying to!"

Ed then began to roll around on the floor for about five minutes, muttering at how difficult the file was, trying various programs on it. At one point she rolled over Ein who yelped and scurried away, glaring at her.

"I got it!" she suddenly cried in triumph.

"Well?"

"Tobias Craven, former Lieutenant in the Crazy Aces! Deserted from them a few months after they came back from Titan! Arrested for desertion right after and sent to prison!" Ed read off with an odd sort of glee.

Jet meanwhile peered over Ed's shoulder to look at the screen he suddenly said, "Great, just great."

"What's great?" asked Spike from the couch.

"What is the one place we both don't want to go back to?"

Spike's eyes widened, he slappedhis hand to his forehead, "Oh no…"

"What? What place could you both possibly not want to go back to THAT badly?" Faye asked a quizzical look on her face as she glanced back and forth from Jet to Spike.

"Pluto," they both responded simultaneously.

"Tobias Craven is at the penal colony on Pluto?"

"Yeah, lets just say that some time ago, Spike and I had to pay a visit there to deal with some 'friends' of ours. We ended up helping out the warden of Pluto, a corrupt official if there ever was one, a guy by the name of Marcus Miró."

"Well, what's bad about this Miró character?" asked Faye.

"Nothing is free with Marcus, NOTHING. He wouldn't give a glass of water to a man dying of thirst in the desert. The only reason Pluto doesn't tear itself apart is that Marcus allows his guards to run rampant on the prisoner population. There have been rumors of beatings and even torture," said Jet.

"Seems like the kind of person that you two would normally deal with," Faye responded in amusement.

Spike retorted, "This coming from a thief herself right?"

"Hey shut up!"

"Enough! If we're going to get this bounty we've got to work together on this, agreed?"

Spike shrugged, "Sure, whatever," and Faye responded with, "Fine."

"Alright, I'll bring the Bebop to the gate and we'll make our way to Pluto, hopefully we'll find this Tobias character, find out where Ashtin is, and collect one hundred and fifty million."

Jet walked off to go to the Bebop's controls, after he left Spike muttered to no one in particular, "I hate Pluto."


	5. Chapter 5 The Boatman's Fee

**The Bebop**

**Pluto's moon, Charon**

**Four days later**

"State your business," said the gruff looking controller on the other end of the commlink that Jet had opened up to the authorities that controlled Pluto.

"We're here to ask a prisoner of yours a few questions," replied Jet who sat directly in front of the screen so the guard could see him, Spike and Faye stood to either side of him, just out of view. Ed was fast asleep in a corner of the room, Ein lying on her stomach.

"And how do I know that you aren't here to try to break said prisoner out of our lovely establishment?" said the guard.

"Because we're bounty hunters."

The man snorted, "That's hardly reassuring, bounty hunters are scum, you people are barely above the people that we house here."

"That's not a very accommodating attitude," replied Jet.

"Why should I be accommodating? We're not exactly within easy reach of the authorities. As long as no one busts out of here, the ISSP doesn't come breathing down our necks."

Jet sighed, "Fine, but I hate to bring him into it."

"Him who?" asked the man with a bored expression on his face

"Marcus Miró."

The name snaps the guy into the current century.

"Yeah right, like you know the boss."

"Oh but we do, and he owes us a favor or two, if you don't believe me, just tell him that Jet and Spike are here to talk to him."

The man looked Jet squarely in the eye, or at least as well as he could from his side of the communications.

"I'll pass the word along to Marcus, if you're lying to me. You'd better be out of the system by the time I get back."

"We'll be here."

The screen flickered off.

"That went well," said Spike.

Jet leaned back slightly his expression slightly pained, "I was really hoping that we wouldn't have to get a hold of Marcus to do all this."

"How exactly does the administrator of the Pluto Prison Colony owe both of you a favor?" Faye asked inquisitively.

Spike and Jet glanced at each other uncomfortably.

"We don't like to talk about it," Jet snapped.

"Oh come on…" Faye responded, her voice sounding like she was coercing a child to jump into a swimming pool when it couldn't swim.

"You tell her Jet, I hate telling stories," Spike said, lighting a cigarette.

Jet grunted in response.

"Awhile ago we nabbed a bounty in the Asteroid Belt. However, the terms of the bounty were that the guy we caught be brought directly to Pluto to the authorities there."

"Directly to Pluto? That's unusual," said Faye interrupting, "normally you would just drop them off at the closest police facility."

"Yeah, we know. However, the bounty paid pretty good and we took the guy to Pluto. It turned out to be a setup. The guy we captured had hacked into the net and had posted his own bounty."

"He WANTED to be taken to Pluto? Why not just go there himself?" Faye asked.

Jet gestured with his mechanical arm at the monitor that was still black. "Because Pluto has a tight security net around it, Marcus ensures that his men are equipped with some of the best weapons money can buy. As you noticed, getting onto Pluto itself isn't easy. All incoming traffic has to go through Charon first. If it attempts to land on Pluto itself, it is blown out of the sky. Only one ship is allowed to take prisoners to or from the surface of Pluto."

"What ship is that?"

Jet smiled a slightly sarcastic smile, "Marcus knows his mythology. Pluto and Charon were both part of the Roman gods. Pluto was the god of the underworld and Charon was the boatman that ferried people across the river Styx. However, there was a guardian to the underworld, a three headed dog by the name of Cerberus. This, Marcus named the ship that goes to and from Pluto the Cerberus."

"Cute, then what happened?'

"Our bounty was taken down to Pluto, where he promptly freed several of his friends, they ran amok around the facility and for a few hours it seemed as if the entire place was going to go up in one massive riot."

"Wait, how come this was never on the news?"

"Pluto is a long way from anything resembling authority; also Marcus is also extremely good at paying off certain government officials to keep things quiet. But as I was saying, we were hired by Marcus to help put down the riot, we spent the next two days running around the Pluto facility trying to track down our former bounty. We finally caught up with him…" Jet trailed off.

"And then what happened?" Faye asked with genuine curiosity.

"Doesn't matter what happened," Spike suddenly interjected, stabbing the cigarette out as he did so. "We made it, he didn't, end of story."

"Aw come on! You can't just end the story like that!" Faye protested.

"He's right, it doesn't matter. Maybe when we have a little more time on our hands I'll finish the rest of the story for you."

Faye crossed her arms, pouting slightly, "You two are no good at stories anyway."

Spike snorted in amusement.

The screen where the guard's face had been suddenly flickered back into life, a different face was on screen this time. The face had several soft wrinkles in it, but they didn't detract from the man's appearance, they actually seemed to lend him an air of nobility. However, the expensive suit he wore more than helped the image that clearly this was a wealthy man. His hair which was black was cut short and sprinkled with white here and there, this combined with his Spanish skin and facial features helped make him pleasant to look at almost. He glared at them from behind a pair of spectacles which were perched on his short nose. His mouth was twisted into an expression of annoyance. His hands were placed together in front of him, palms and fingers together. He was seated in a plush chair behind a wooden desk. Upon seeing that he was indeed talking to Spike and Jet, his features relaxed somewhat.

"So it is you two, I never thought I would see you again," Marcus Miró said, his voice had a faint Spanish accent to it.

"Good to see you Marcus, how long has it been?" Jet said, smiling pleasantly into the screen.

"Long enough for your memory to fade it would seem, I told you both to not come back here, trouble follows both you and Mr. Spiegel like a cat chasing a mouse."

"You know we wouldn't be here if it wasn't important Marcus," Jet responded.

Marcus raised an eyebrow, "Oh really? And what important task made you return to my humble little corner of the Solar System?"

"We need to speak to one of your prisoners."

Marcus' lips tightened and his expression hardened, "Out of the question."

"What? Why not?" Jet responded.

"It seems your memory has faded quite a bit indeed, the last time you two set foot on my planet, you let loose a man that nearly cost me my job and my reputation."

"That wasn't our fault!" Jet yelled back at the screen.

Marcus shrugged, "Whether it was or not, you both were the catalyst for what occurred."

"But we did help you put the riot down."

"A riot you helped cause," Marcus retorted.

Faye suddenly grabbed the screen before Jet or Spike could react, she turned it so Marcus could see her and yelled, "Come on! All we want to do is talk to one lousy prisoner! Besides, its not like these two have any sort of prisoner with them this time, maybe you have time to play these kinds of games but I don't! If you won't let either of these two down to Pluto maybe you'll just let me down? Or maybe you think little old me will hurt your facility."

Jet and Spike stared at Faye in open surprise.

Jet suddenly snatched the screen out of Faye's grasp, "Ignore her Marcus we-"

Marcus raised a hand, "No, the lady did remind me of something. I am a businessman, and I let my personal feelings cloud my judgment on this matter. I'll allow you two down to the surface of Pluto to speak with whomever you want under one condition."

"What's that?" asked Jet.

"The lady spends an hour with me aboard the Cerberus."

Faye gawked at the screen, "Is he serious!" she yelled, "I'm not some kind of bargaining chip to be used when-"

"Deal," Spike suddenly said, cutting Faye off.

"Good, I will let my men know that you two are cleared to go down to the surface once the lady arrives here. I expect her to arrive at the Cerberus in fifteen minutes or the deal is off. Remember, she doesn't show up here, you two don't go down to Pluto."

The screen winked off before anyone could react.

Faye ground her teeth together and turned towards Spike, "Why did you do that?" she uttered slowly.

Spike shrugged and replied, "Hey you agreed that we've all got to work together on this."

Faye clenched her fists, clearly about to try to beat the living crap out of Spike.

"Hey, don't get mad at me. You're the one who suddenly jumped in on the conversation. Now, you should go freshen up, you have a date to go to," Spike smiled at her.

Faye turned and stalked off her fists still clenched.

Jet watched her go, "You know she's going to kill you after all this is said and done."

"Yeah, my record with women seems to run that way."

In the corner of the room, Ed began to snore.


	6. Chapter 6 The Meeting

**Pluto Correction Facility**

**Pluto**

Spike and Jet set their respective ships down inside a massive cavern that had been carved out from Pluto. The cavern could hold at least a dozen ships and was designed with an airlock to keep out the bitter cold of Pluto's atmosphere as they entered. Due to its distance from Earth, Pluto's atmosphere was cold, -387°F to be exact. At such temperatures, Pluto's atmosphere literally would freeze when it was not in direct view of the sun. The prison facility was in reality mostly a honeycomb network of rooms, cells, and living facilities. There were several buildings on the surface of Pluto, but they of course were only a part of the underground network.

Life in the planet was hard, the prisoners were put to use as a sort of slave labor. The prisoners were used to process shipments of ore that were mined from the outer fringes of the Solar System. While the mining companies could have shipped ore to the facilities in closer to the sun, the companies chose to send their ore to Marcus, who of course didn't need to pay the prisoners and charged the companies about half what normal processing facilities would charge. This helped keep the price of various goods that were made from the ore, down while Marcus got to pocket most of the profits. Thus, the mining companies, Marcus, and the consumer were all happy in the deal. Which is why no one ever made a stink about what went on here, of course it also helped that Marcus bribed government officials, news agencies and individuals to keep the whole thing hushed.

Spike climbed out of the Swordfish and waited while Jet got out of his own ship and walked over to him.

A guard wearing a dark blue uniform strode up to the pair of bounty hunters; he had a pistol in its holster, a baton, and a taser. His boots where a highly shined black and he also had on a soft cap on his head that read in bright yellow letters "PLUTO CORRECTION FACILITY."

"The boss called ahead of you guys saying you needed to talk to a prisoner," the guard said.

"Yeah, we're looking for Tobias Craven," Spike said.

"Tobias Craven? You're kidding right?" the guard said, his bushy eyebrows rising in surprise.

"No, why would we be?" Jet responded.

"Craven is one of our 'difficult' prisoners, he doesn't blend well with the inmates, in the past six months alone he is responsible for the deaths of four other inmates. He also beat the hell out of two guards in one incident that earned him a two month trip to the hole."

"The hole?" Spike asked.

"A place where people like Craven go when they do something bad, normally a week or two breaks most inmates."

"And did he break?" Spike replied.

"No, not yet."

"And he spent two months in there?" Jet asked incredulously.

"Yeah, but don't worry though, everyone breaks…eventually," the guard replied with a cold smile. He turned and said, "If you two will follow me, I'll take you to where you will be directed to the meeting room with Tobias Craven."

**The Cerberus**

**Orbit of Pluto**

Faye glanced around the dark room uneasily.

Even though she still had her pistol on her, which did little to ease her mind. She didn't know who this Marcus character was or what he wanted. If he was like most men he wanted one thing and Faye was determined to make sure Marcus Miró would sorely regret it if he tried anything.

Faye had landed on the Cerberus and had been quickly ushered to this room, with no word of instruction or anyone to greet her, here she had been left. They hadn't even bothered to search her or try to take her pistol from her which was odd.

"Those two idiots, I can't believe they threw me to the wolves," Faye muttered to herself.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, however, you must understand that it has been some time since I've laid eyes on such a lovely specimen of the female species." A voice spoke from the deepest concentration of shadows.

Faye looked towards the direction the voice had come from she answered, "Flattery will get you nowhere, unless I can see you."

"Of course, how rude of me," several lights suddenly turned on, filling the room with a dim, soft light.

Marcus Miró was seated at a large wooden table, two candles burned slowly on the table, various trays of food were scattered on the table. Marcus himself was dressed in the same expensive suit he had been wearing while he spoke to the Bebop crew.

"So you just think you can throw some nice ambiance at me and get something from me? How like a man." Faye threw the barb at Marcus to see his reaction.

Marcus put on a slightly pained expression, "You misunderstand me. I'm not trying to get anything from you other than your company."

Faye raised a skeptical eyebrow. Marcus attempted to soothe her concerns by standing up slowly, he walked with his hands in plain sight to another chair which was at the table opposite the one he had been sitting in, he slide the chair out from the table slowly and said, "Would you care to sit down? I only have an hour or so to converse with and admire you and I'm sure you could do with some decent food."

Faye smiled at Marcus; this sort of gentlemanly behavior was a welcome change from Spike and Jet, "I would be glad to."

**Pluto Correctional Facility**

**Pluto**

Spike and Jet followed the guard to a large control room where there were dozens of guards at various monitors. Some monitors showed prisoners in blue uniforms shuffling about doing various tasks while others showed empty halls and views of cell doors.

The guard leading them turned to both and said, "Alright, only one of you will get to visit with Tobias Craven, we do this to prevent any escape measures, you will be searched of course before the meeting, we do not allow firearms, knives, tools, or any other foreign object that can be used as a weapon or an escape device into meetings with a prisoner. You," the guard pointed at Spike, "Will be the one who will get to speak with Tobias Craven, your friend will have to fill out some paperwork pertaining to the meeting."

Spike didn't care much for walking through a prison filled with convicts and armed with nothing but his dry humor, but the guard seemed to sense this and said, "Don't worry, we have guards patrolling the place, nothing will happen to you."

Spike gave his pistol to Jet, turning to the guard he said, "Lead on."

The guard shrugged in response, "Oh, I won't be taking you; you'll find your own way there. I need to make sure your friend here fills out all the paperwork."

"You're going to let me wander the facility without an escort?" Spike asked, "Very handy security measures you guys have here."

"The cell doors are all connected to our central computers here in the control center, if you attempt to open any of the doors, the system will detect that. Also most of the facility is monitored so any actions you take will be noticed by us immediately, besides, the meeting room isn't too far from here so you'll do fine."

The guard walked over to a nearby screen and pulled up a map of the prison. Judging by the map, Spike could tell Marcus had vastly expanded the place since he and Jet had last been here, the prison virtually covered the entire expense of Pluto's underground. Well, when you had a solar system full of criminals, you needed all the space you could get Spike mused.

The guard pointed at the turns Spike would need to make in the halls, there were only a couple, Spike would have no trouble getting there.

The guard promptly handed Jet a stack of papers that appeared to be about three feet high, Jet groaned.

Chuckling, Spike turned on his heel and made his way out into the hall to go to the meeting room where he was assured by the guard, Tobias would be there waiting for him.

Walking down the corridor, Spike was slightly awed by the sheer size of the facility. Coming out of the control room, which had been closed off and filled with equipment into the Spartan confines of the prison itself, was quite amazing. A massive hollowed out cavern housed a majority of the prisoners, they were confined to their cells most of the time. The cell doors themselves appeared to be solid metal, but at any moment, they could be seen through by a small video screen on the outside of the door, this way the prisoners had no way of knowing when they were being viewed and when they had privacy. Next to the viewing screen was the name of the prisoner inside the cell. Each cell had concrete walls that had two inches of steel behind it. Not that one could tunnel outside the prison. Pluto's atmosphere prevented anyone from tunneling out, even if they could get through the concrete and steel wall.

The cavern itself had several "layers" to it. There were at least ten layers that Spike could see across from him, the distance between the walkway he was on and the one across from him appeared to be about three hundred feet. In between the distance were a multitude of automated security bots. The bots were the heavy support for the guards if needed; they could be called to subdue either a single prisoner or a good portion of the population. They were armed with two mini-vulcan machine guns along with two tasers that could put out enough of a shock to take down a group of men at once. The guards could call the machines to them with a device that was attached to their wrist which could then identify the guards from the convicts due to the device on their wrist and act accordingly.

Spike recognized several of the names on the doors as he walked along, a few made him inwardly shudder, some of these guys were BAD news. Spike turned a corner that would lead him out of the cavern and into a hallway that led off of the main prison cells where the meeting room was.

He and a guard promptly ran into each other.

The guard and Spike stumbled backwards both of them nearly falling over. The guard immediately smiled apologetically and said, "Hey, I'm sorry about that, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry too."

The guard smiled again and waved a hand dismissively, cheerfully adding, "Hey don't worry about it! I'm sure glad I ran into you and not one of the convicts that got out of their cell!"

Spike raised an eyebrow, "You seem rather cheerful to be a guard here."

"Well, it's nice to find work. Even if it's all the way out here on the edge of the Solar System, I mean, it's hard to make an honest living ya know?"

Spike nodded. The guard was about his height, maybe an inch or two taller; he had gray eyes that seemed a total contrast to his cheerful personality. Even though he wore a guard's uniform Spike could tell the guy was lean but muscular. He had blonde hair that was buzzed all around his head. "It's difficult to make a living these days," he responded.

The guard nodded, "Hey, you're not a guard and you're certainly not a prisoner, why are ya here pal?"

"Visiting someone," Spike curtly replied.

The guard's eyes widened incredulously, "Really? I don't think I've ever heard of ANYONE coming all the way out to Pluto just to visit someone. This person must be real important to you."

"You could say that."

The guard nodded, "Well, I've been away from my route too long, it was nice talking to you Mr..?"

"Spiegel, Spike Spiegel, likewise and you are?"

"Oh!" the guard seemed to forget to introduce himself, "I'm Ray Gerund." he said, pointing at his nametag which read, sure enough, GERUND.

The guard went off down the way Spike had come, whistling a pleasant tune; Spike watched him go and shook his head. He had a prisoner to talk to.

Deric Ashtin turned his head over his shoulder and watched the man continue down the hall, the man said he was here to meet someone. The real Ray Gerund was dead of course, his neck cleanly broken and his body deposited in an empty cell. Deric had stripped the guard's body, taking his uniform and equipment. Of course eventually a scan of the cells in the area would detect the guard's lifeless body, but that wasn't to happen for another two hours and by that time, Deric would be long gone.

Deric's entry on Pluto had actually occurred two days ago. Using a small ship that he had launched from his command ship in hyperspace, he had slipped under the radar so to speak and landed on Charon. Using techniques that he had honed in his years of service, he had snuck aboard one of the supply ships that were bound for Pluto. He arrived and through his knowledge of the security system, had managed to evade Marcus Miró's security forces constant patrols and scans. The planning of his operation that led up to his assault on the installation on Mars had also plans for this.

Tobias Craven was a loose end and loose ends needed to be tied. While he could have easily eliminated Tobias before he had attacked the Martian installation, he hadn't wanted to risk alerting anyone of his plans before they had come to fruition. Now that the primary operation had succeeded, it was time to complete his secondary objective.

The man said he was here visiting someone, coincidence? Deric never believed in coincidence. He knew that Tobias was here; no doubt others did as well. He would follow this man, whom he had little doubt was a bounty hunter. If this Spike Spiegel led him to his target then he would eliminate both him and Tobias Craven, if not?

Well, it wouldn't matter if another body would be discovered by the end of the day.


	7. Chapter 7 The Breakout

Jet groaned as he looked at another piece of paper, how many had he filled out so far? A hundred? He'd lost count around then.

Sitting in an uncomfortable metal chair at a table, he stood and stretched, turning to the guard that had escorted Spike and himself from the landing bay he said, "I'm going to go outside and get some air, I'll finish this in a bit."

The guard shrugged, "Suit yourself."

Rubbing his temple with his real hand Jet exited the control room into the main cavern in the direction Spike had gone he needed a few minutes before he went back in. Paperwork had been a part of police work back on Ganymede, but these guys seemed to have developed a way to make it even more torturous if that was possible.

Just a few minutes to clear his head and Jet would go back to filling those papers out.

He put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it, blowing a cloud of smoke out while staring at the endless number of cells.

For some reason Jet had a feeling, the same type of feeling that he had before bad things happened, he didn't know what it was about, but he needed to be on his guard. The type of feeling he should have listened to, otherwise he still might have both of his arms.

Taking another drag of the cigarette Jet leaned on the railing that separated the walkway from a tumble of about twenty stories down to the bottom of the cavern.

Jet had the gut feeling something was about to go down and he didn't like it one bit.

Spike walked down the hallway past several more cells until he finally arrived at a door that was marked with "Visiting Room."

Spike assumed this was the place. The door was funny in the fact in that it wasn't high-tech like the cell doors, it was actually a solid wood which seemed highly out of place in the ultra-modern prison that Marcus had going here.

The door also had an actual doorknob on it. Apparently this room wasn't used enough to warrant a high-tech security system installed to it. Marcus it seemed was cost effective when needed.

Turning the knob and opening the door, Spike walked into the room which was bare, save two wooden chairs and a heavy metal table. The walls of the room itself were concrete that seemed chipped in several places. There were a few dim overhead lights that illuminated the man seated in the chair across the table from where Spike now stood. He glared at Spike with two differently colored eyes, one blue and one brown. He had black hair that was long, down past his shoulders in fact. A beard the same color as his hair was on his face; both the beard and his hair looked dirty. The man was wore a pair of shackles that handcuffed his hands to his ankles. A chain connected the two cuffs together; due to the chain the man could only put his hands up to about his chest level. The shackles on his legs made it impossible for him to move at more than a shuffle. He wore a prisoner's uniform that was light blue color that had a set of numbers and a barcode on the right side of his chest imprinted on the uniform.

"So, you must be Tobias Craven," Spike said, taking a seat across from the man.

Tobias Craven's eyes flickered slightly at the use of his name.

"Never had a visitor before," he uttered.

"Can't imagine why you would. Lieutenant Tobias Craven, veteran of the Titan Conflict. You racked up an impressive record by the way during that. You then chose to leave the unit you had fought and nearly died with, being branded a deserter and a traitor in the process. You were arrested and sent here to serve a sentence of no fewer than thirty years without any sort of parole before then. Since you've gotten here you've been nothing but trouble for the authorities here, killing several prisoners and injuring two guards. You're labeled a 'Maximum Threat Prisoner.' No wonder no one would come visit you."

"You seem to know a lot about me, but I know nothing about you. So why should I talk to you?"

"You can call me Spike Spiegel and I did get you out of your cell."

Tobias shrugged, "Big deal, it's not like I'm not going back there whenever our little chat is done with."

"An old commander of yours did the same thing you did, turned up missing you know, that's why I'm here to talk with you, I just need a little info on the guy."

"Who?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Deric Ashtin."

The name silences Tobias. He leans back in the chair heavily, it creaking slightly under him. He says nothing for at least a minute, in that time Spike lights up a cigarette.

"May I have one?" Tobias asks looking at Spike, "It's been awhile."

Spike offers the pack to Tobias, who holds up his shackled hands to show that he can't reach out and take the cigarette, Spike takes one of the cigarettes out of the pack, puts it in Tobias' lips and lights it for him. Tobias has to bend his head down to his chest to take the cigarette out of his mouth to knock some of the ashes off, finally he speaks.

"So, Colonel Ashtin went missing?"

"Yeah, that's the official word anyway; you think maybe he was kidnapped?"

Tobias snorts derisively, chuckling slightly as well; he takes another drag of the cigarette before removing it and holding it in his shackled hands.

"I do not know a single person in the Solar System, hell, the GALAXY who could kidnap Deric Ashtin. The man is a trained killer and anyone who tried to kidnap him would end up in a body bag within minutes of trying to take him. I'm sure you've read up him if you know so much about me."

"There's a bounty out for finding him, I'm just looking for him."

"A bounty huh? How very interesting, that must mean that you are a bounty hunter there Spike," the last part of the sentence isn't said with the same malice that Spike normally encounters from a lot of people who learn about his trade.

"Yeah, I am."

Tobias takes a final drag of the cigarette before stabbing it out on the metal table, his shackled hands slide off the table and rest out of sight in his lap, he leans forward slightly towards Spike, "So what do you want from me?"

"I need to know about where Ashtin could have gone. Who he could have met up with. What planets he most likely would go to."

"Because the Crazy Aces all went with him," Tobias cuts in.

This causes Spike to pause; apparently Tobias somehow knows or knew in advance about Ashtin and what he had planned.

"How do you know the Crazy Aces went missing too?" Spike responds finally putting out his cigarette that he had let burn out slowly anyway, "I didn't think Marcus allowed you all access to the news."

"He doesn't, just a feeling I had. The Aces are bound to Deric, unto death. They are almost a part of him. However more importantly, this is bad news for me."

"What do you mean?"

Tobias Craven locks eyes with Spike before answering, "Deric Ashtin is coming here to kill me."

"What? How is that possible?"

"Let's just say Deric Ashtin has a talent for making the impossible, possible. In fact you even being near me has put your life in danger Mr. Spiegel."

"I'm used to being in danger," Spike responds.

This causes Tobias to shake his head, "Not this type you're not. I'm sure you've deal with murderers and criminals of the sort before. But Deric Ashtin is something different; he is none of those things yet all of them at the same time. He is the product of military training and testing, the mere fact that you're standing here alive now tells me that you've not even come near him yet."

"You make him sound like some sort of bogeyman."

"He nearly is."

"Well, since you're a dead man anyway. How about helping me out?" Spike asks.

Tobias laughs, "Not that easy, Mr. Spiegel if my life is in danger. I very much wish to preserve it. You in fact can help me in this endeavor."

"How?"

"Get me off of this rock."

"Sure, I'll just call up Marcus and get him to release a maximum threat prisoner to go gallivanting around the Solar System, are you totally insane!" Spike cries out.

"Yes according to several of my psyche evaluations, however, the fact remains that if I tell you nothing, you'll never find Ashtin."

"I could just wait here for him to come and kill you."

"That you could, but then he would kill you as well."

"I've been killed plenty of times before."

"I'm sure. You seem like the type of person most would want to kill"

There was a noise behind Spike, the sound of the door to the meeting room being opened; Spike has time to see Tobias Craven's eyes go wide as he turns around in his chair towards the door.

The guard that he ran into in the hallway is standing in the doorway.

This time, he doesn't seem to be the same cheerful person.

Jet takes a final drag on the cigarette before letting it drop over the side of the railing to plunge down in the depths of the prisoner cavern. He is about to head back to the control center when something stops him, turning around he glances down the walkway in the direction Spike went, there's that feeling again…

Jet decides to shrug it off for the moment, Spike can take care of himself, after all Spike could take care of himself couldn't he?

The question makes Jet hesitate in walking back to the control center.

The hesitation saves his life.

A powerful explosion rips through the control center, killing every guard in it. The force knocks Jet onto his back knocking him unconscious. Within seconds the control center for this section of the prison facility has been destroyed.

Moments before the explosion Spike is staring at the guard what was his name? Ray Gerund, that's it.

"Hey Ray, do you mind? I'm trying to have a chat in here," Spike says.

The guard doesn't say a word; instead he reaches for his sidearm and draws the pistol in one smooth motion. His other hand retrieves a control device from a pocket that he holds in his left hand, the pistol in his right. He presses a button on the control device and the facility shakes from a powerful explosion. Ray Gerund doesn't seem fazed by the shuddering; he levels the pistol at Tobias Craven's head.

Spike's instincts take hold; he springs out of the chair lashing out with his right foot as he does so. The quickness of the move catches the fake guard off balance, his hand snaps to the left, the pistol going off. The noise reverberates through the room as the round slams into the floor, kicking up chunks of concrete. Within but a moment, the would-be assassin has the pistol moving back towards Tobias again, only this time, Tobias is ready. He springs up out of the chair slightly, his hands somehow no longer shackled to his feet, grabbing the edge of the metal table, he heaves upwards with all his strength, sending the table flying at the guard. The table is promptly kicked by the guard who fires two more shots which impact into the thick metal table but do not go through. Spike meanwhile sends a roundhouse kick towards the man's face, the blow catches him squarely across the face, the blow staggers him for a moment and he takes a step or two back into the hallway as a result, dropping his controller which he accidentally kicks back into the hallway as he takes a step back. Normally most men would have been almost out cold, but this guy apparently has some kind of high tolerance for pain.

From behind the metal table, Tobias cries out, "It's Ashtin!"

"Ashtin?" Spike says, "Great! Now I can collect on my bounty."

Spike does a quick step into the hallway where Deric Ashtin has already recovered from the kick to his face. He eyes Spike with those cold grey eyes. An alarm is sounding throughout the facility echoing off the walls, no doubt that within minutes guards will swarm this section of the prison

"So, you're a bounty hunter, eh?" he says, "I must admit. You're not bad, but I'm afraid I don't have time to play with you."

He levels the pistol at Spike with his right hand, Spike steps forward and quick as lightening, puts his right forearm underneath Ashtin's right arm, just ahead of his elbow, his left forearm just behind that same elbow only above the arm.

Simultaneously in the same motion, Spike brings his right arm up and his left arm down swiftly. The move is done so that it will break Ashtin's elbow.

However, Ashtin's elbow doesn't give at all. He fires a round from the pistol, the round grazing Spike's side slightly as it goes by. He then snaps his head forward, his forehead smashing into Spike's face.

Spike stumbles back, pain going across his vision. What the hell was this guy? The move should have broken his elbow instead the guy seems to be made of solid steel.

Ashtin smiles at Spike, pointing the pistol at him. Suddenly his head snaps towards the meeting room. One of the wooden chairs that Spike and Tobias had been sitting in is flying at Ashtin's face. He snaps the pistol towards the chair and fires several rounds at it in midair, shattering the chair into several pieces which fall harmlessly to the floor.

The distraction is what Spike needs; he attacks again, only this time, his target is the gun. He grabs at the gun and pressing down on a small switch on the side, he pushes the upper receiver of the gun towards Ashtin then pulls it back towards him, the receiver comes off cleanly, the gun is now useless without it. Spike throws it down the hallway with all his might it makes a clatter as it hits the floor.

Ashtin looks at the now useless weapon and casts it aside; he raises his fists slowly into a military combatatives stance. However, Spike can tell it's altered; the guy apparently has some martial arts training mixed into it.

Spike throws a punch towards Ashtin's solar plexus, intending to wind him with one blow, but Ashtin catches his fist in mid-air with one hand and slams his fist into Spike's face Spike flies back into the wall, his eyes widen and he quickly ducks as Ashtin throws a punch that slams into the wall.

A normal man punching with such force would normally shatter his hand from hitting the wall, but instead the wall says uncle. Chunks of concrete fly away as Ashtin's fist hits the wall putting a slight crater in it. Ashtin doesn't even seem to notice. He draws back his hand as Spike crouches down; placing both of his hands on the ground and kicks out with both of his feet.

His feet slam into Ashtin's chest, Ashtin takes a step backwards his guard momentarily down.

The heavy metal table suddenly slams into Ashtin's legs the table barely fit through the doorway, but barely was enough. It pins Ashtin against the wall for a second, Tobias Craven slides over the table and yells to Spike, "Come on! We've got to get out of here!"

"Not without him I'm not!"

Tobias shakes his head and runs off down the hallway; Ashtin for his part grabs the table and almost without effort heaves it back into the meeting room. He glares at Spike a moment before running after Tobias, scooping up the controller that he used to detonate whatever explosive device in the facility.

Spike of course, runs after him.

The trio runs down the hallway, like some sort of mouse-cat-dog chase, as runs, Ashtin strips off the top of his guard uniform and rips off his guard pants without even slowing down.

Underneath his guard uniform he is wearing a light blue prisoner's outfit the same as Tobias' the reason for this doesn't dawn on Spike until he sees Ashtin press another button on the same detonator that set off the explosion earlier, suddenly a loud grinding noise is heard.

All of the doors to the prison cells in the section slide open.

Deric Ashtin has let loose several hundred of the Solar System's most ruthless criminals and disguised himself as one of them in the process the only one out of place here is Spike, the prisoners certainly won't bother Tobias and Ashtin who are both wearing the same uniform. Spike however will seem a bit out of place and no doubt the prisoners will notice this.

"Just great," Spike mutters continuing the chase.

**The Cerberus**

**Orbit of Pluto**

Faye smiled at Marcus across the table. The meal had been _wonderful_ to put it mildly. After days hell, weeks of eating cups of noodles and whatever else Jet and Spike had it was nice to actually sit down and have an actual meal. Marcus wasted no expense in anything he did it seemed.

From behind his spectacles Marcus smiled generously at Faye's pleasant response.

"I must thank you Ms. Valentine, I haven't had such good company in a long time, it makes me quite sad that you must depart, sadder still with Spike and Jet."

"Believe me in some ways I'd rather stay here if the treatment was always going to be this nice, but I'm afraid I've got to wander, it's in my nature."

Marcus nodded, "Of course, you have your lifestyle and I have my little empire to run."

There was a sudden beeping noise from a small monitor that was built into the table, Marcus nods politely at Faye, "If you will excuse me for a moment."

"Of course," Faye smiles politely all the while wondering how she can hide more of the expensive silverware on herself then she already has without Marcus' notice.

Marcus presses a button next to the screen, his face grows tense as he reads information on the screen, he presses the same button and the screen flicks off.

"I'm afraid that I must end our pleasant company Ms. Valentine," he says.

"Why? I thought we were having a good time," Faye responds genuinely surprised.

"It seems that your two friends have once again brought trouble into my facility. I just received a message that an entire section of the prison's cells have been opened and a riot is in progress."


	8. Chapter 8 The Duel

**Pluto Correctional Facility**

**Pluto**

Spike lashed out with a swift roundhouse kick, the blow shattered the nose of the convict in his way, blood sprayed out of the man's nose and he fell to the ground clutching it.

Spike continued running after Tobias and Ashtin, dodging prisoners sometimes, punching or kicking others to get them out of the way.

A few seconds later he arrived at the walkway that overlooked the main cavern where Spike could see prisoners running around every which way. The security bots that hovered in the center of the cavern were dealing with prisoners as often as they could, but there were far too many for the bots to deal with alone. Several guards had been killed outright; their weapons procured by resourceful inmates, however, Spike knew that it was only a matter of time until Marcus dispatched enough men to put down this riot.

But Tobias would be dead before they got here and Ashtin would vanish into the crowd and get away.

Spike saw that ahead of him, Ashtin and Tobias were being held up by a mass of prisoners that was throwing burning toilet paper down the massive cavern. Tobias was trying to push his way through the crowd, but making little headway.

Ashtin on the other hand was taking a decidedly more proactive approach, he killed any prisoner that got in his way by snapping their necks, or crushing their throats with a well aimed blow.

Spike lowered his shoulder and threw all his weight into a prisoner that was blocking his bath, the man grunted and flew directly into Ashtin's side. Ashtin who was so focused on his target didn't have time to react as the man slammed into him, sending him into the railing. Ashtin, with an annoyed look on his face, grabbed the prisoner Spike had knocked into him and threw up over the railing. The prisoner yelled as he plunged to his death.

That was all Spike needed.

He threw a jump kick at Ashtin's face. By this time, Ashtin had noticed him and simply sidestepped, catching Spike's leg in midair. He attempted to throw Spike over the railing, but Spike was ready for that. He lashed out with his other foot, catching Ashtin in the face. Ashtin dropped Spike, who fell to the ground.

Ashtin glared down at Spike, "You are starting to annoy me bounty hunter," he said.

Spike smiled up at him, "I tend to have that affect on people."

"I'm afraid its time I got serious about this, you should feel honored. I can't remember the last time I had to do this to a person in a face to face fight."

"Do what?"

Spike suddenly felt something. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Looking at Ashtin, he knew something was different. Ashtin's face appeared to be slightly different, his muscles appeared slightly larger, his entire body seemed like a coiled spring.

Spike stood up and threw a punch.

Only to have it fly through the empty air.

Ashtin had anticipated the move, but he hadn't just anticipated it, he damned near had almost known Spike would throw it before he did.

He was already ducking below the punch and his fist a blur, he drove his fist up into Spike's solar plexus. The blow was more solid than anything Spike had felt before. It seemed to travel all the way to his spine and over his entire body. He started to double over, but Ashtin wasn't finished. Spike could barely register it, but Ashtin dropped and swept out his right leg in a large arc, knocking Spike's feet out from under him.

Spike slammed face first into the hard metal walkway, gasping for air. Ashtin grabbed Spike by the back of his neck, intending to break his neck with but a quick twist.

A loud bang accompanied by a splatter of blood from Ashtin told Spike that someone apparently decided to be nice enough to rescue him.

His vision was blurry, but he could see Jet standing down the walkway, his pistol in his hand.

Ashtin showed no pain from the bullet wound, which had gone through his left side cleanly. Still holding Spike, he threw him with more strength than Spike knew no man could possibly possess.

Perhaps Ashtin had intended for Spike to sail into Jet and knock the both of them over. But instead, Spike flew over the railing and began to plunge down into the cavern.

**The Cerberus**

**Orbit of Pluto**

"I don't care what it takes! I want that riot suppressed now!" Marcus barked angrily into the video screen, he turned off the screen with disgust.

Faye stood on the bridge of the Cerberus, through the large windows she could see Pluto floating before her. Marcus had strode into the bridge after hearing of the riot, Faye had wanted to ask about Spike and Jet, but knew better than to bother Marcus at this point.

Marcus was seated in chair that could be rotated several different ways so Marcus could more easily view each station and monitor the situation on Pluto.

"Sir, I'm getting something from Gate 2," said one of the men sitting at a nearby station.

Marcus turned the chair and faced the man, "What is it now? The government?"

"No sir, it appears to be a ship," the man looked at his screen, "a large ship," he added.

"Can you identify it?"

"It appears to be a luxury space liner, however, its signature doesn't fit that of a normal cruise liner. It appears to be modified in several places. Its ID signature is broadcasting as the Agamemnon."

"The Agamemnon? Wasn't that the liner that vanished near Saturn a year ago?"

"Yes sir, it appears it has returned…Sir! It's launching what appear to be fighters!"

Marcus' face darkened, he looked at Faye over his shoulder, "It would seem that whatever it is that followed your friends here, it is big."

Faye didn't answer.

"Order our own fighters on the Cerberus and on Charon to intercept. Bring the Cerberus on an intercept course with the Agamemnon. We'll show those bastards what kind of teeth we have."

**Pluto Correctional Facility**

**Pluto**

Spike's life flashed before his eyes. Jet, Faye, Ed, Ein, Vicious, they were all there. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. There wasn't any way to stop it this time, he'd always lived life on the edge and now, the edge had cut him.

One final person flashed before him.

_Julia_.

Spike slammed into something hard and metallic. The hovering security bot's motors screamed at the addition of Spike's weight. It tried to gain altitude. Spike managed to get his bearings long enough to stand up and leap off the top of the bot and hit the walkway near Jet.

"Spike! Here!" Jet tossed him his pistol.

Spike caught it and aimed at Ashtin who was barreling towards them.

Spike pulled the trigger, but Ashtin seemed to almost duck out of the way of the bullet. Both Jet and Spike began to squeeze the triggers of their pistols as fast as they could. Ashtin as strong and fast as he now was, decided not to chance a lucky hit that might kill him. He threw himself over the railing.

As he began to fall, he reached out and grabbed a railing, his weight and velocity bending it as he did so. Spike knew that a normal man would have had his shoulder dislocated, but Ashtin seemed to have no side effects at all. He climbed onto the walkway and was now at least two levels below Spike and Jet.

Damn, Spike had lost him.

"Come on Spike! We've gotta get out of here!"

Spike nodded and still wincing from the blows Ashtin had given him, he and Jet began to run towards the hangar where their ships were parked.


End file.
